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May 16, 2012

After Mother’s Day, everybody’s looking forward to summer arriving! Although some fish have become scarce in the past few weeks due to closures for sustainability spawn quotas, we have some very exciting new seafood items increasing in availability!

In the Northeast…

Weather is iffy in New England and prices are expensive on just about everything except for Hake and Pollack, which both should be reasonably priced. Both of these fish make great specials as they are very versatile fish. Try one (…or both) today!

In the Mid-Atlantic…

Catches have been few and far between as most seasons come to a close including Striped Bass and Flounder.

June 1 marks the start of Pound Net Flounder season; prices will be very high at the beginning.

We will be getting small peripheral catches of Black Bass, Spanish Mackerel and Monkfish out of the Chesapeake area along with some Croakers.

Hopefully we will continue to see good quantities of Softshell Crabs for the next week to 14 days.

Scallop fishing has closed from Virginia to New Jersey, although the Grand Banks remains open, so most of the Scallops will be coming from that area.

Down the Coast…

Over the next 30-45 days we are expecting a good run of Amberjack.

Good news is that we are still seeing good quantities of Shrimp out of the Carolinas as well as Georgia and Northern Florida!

We are seeing a nice run of Mahi Mahi out of the Carolinas along with landings of Shark, Wreckfish and a few Barrelfish coming to the docks. Prices on this Cherry Point Mahi will be expensive but in the same range as imports, so take advantage of freshly packed domestic fish off of the coast of the Carolinas.

The Carolinas are now opened up for off shore deep water fishing, so we are expecting some short-trip Grouper, Snapper and B-liners especially out of docks in Wilmington and the Outer Banks. We will also see some Triggerfish and Scamp that will be expensive but overall the production should be good and the quality will be great.

We are also seeing Calico Bay Scallops from the South Atlantic. This fishery is setting up a new processing line closer to the bed, so products are fresh, fresh, fresh! We will have 4 lb and 8 lb units beginning next week and this will be an item to menu and  a great feature for just about anyone!

In the Gulf…

We are seeing some decent landings of Tuna, but prices remain high.

We are also starting to see some Swordfish coming in after the moon as the fleet makes one more trip before moving to the Northeast for the summer!

Also in the Gulf of Mexico we are seeing good landings of Grouper and Snapper and all of the peripheral by-catches that are associated with these fisheries. We expect this to stay steady for the next couple of months, and are expecting good catches of both Grouper and Snapper over the weekend.

Off the West Coast…

Fishing is generally poor as many seasons are closed, however there are some Dover Sole still coming in, which is a delicious and very versatile fish!

Cod is disappearing because most of the catch seasons are closing and most boats in Alaska have switched gears to get ready for the Wild Alaskan Salmon Season.

Off California and Northern Washington, troll fishing for King Salmon is just getting underway. So far catches are not as good as predicted which could be attributed to the fact that fisherman from Southern Oregon to California haven’t fished King Salmon in close to 4 years. They may have to go through a relearning process before catches improve. Some Wild King Salmon are coming out of the Columbia River this week, and also Hook and Line fish out of British Columbia

This week on the 17th the Copper River opens with its usual fanfare. Even though it is opening later than last year it still may be a slow opening due to heavy ice pack from a very cold and snowy winter in Alaska.

In the Pacific Northwest, this is the best time to buy Halibut, which is why we are running a feature on it this week! Prices are lowering and should stay down for the rest of the month until Salmon season gets fully underway.

And in Shellfish…

Lobsters are continuing to come down in price, but demand overseas for processed, whole-cooked and Lobster Tails are keeping prices in Canada higher than they should be. There may be an early shed this month or early June in Maine, which means we will have Fresh Lobster Meat down here by mid-June. Although the meat will be of great quality, prices will remain high, we’re afraid.

BUT stock up now on our Frozen Lobster Meat including a limited amount of Lobster Jumbo Lump that we froze last January at prices that will be a couple of dollars less than fresh will be initially.

Crab Meat has begun to show out of the Gulf of Mexico and there is a good abundance of Crabs out of Chesapeake Bay area. The only issue with Crab is lack of workers, as it has been years since there has been an abundance of crabs in that area.

More good news is that there is still a great abundance of high quality Blue Crab out of Colombia. If you haven’t tried it, do!

Oysters are starting to become more problematic as the weather gets warmer. With the warm weather out of the Northeast this winter we expect to see more closures and more red tides—which unfortunately means lack of oysters. This will still affect oysters out of the Northwest even though the water has been a little colder there.

*Please preorder oysters; we will not have oysters on speculation to ensure a fresh supply and to minimize waste.

Mussels out of the Northeast and PEI are currently in the middle of spawning, but hopefully that will be done by the 1st week of June. We advise you to wash your Mussels in cold ice water upon receiving. We have a sheet on how to wash your Mussels to preserve quality when they are spawning at this time of year. Please contact your sales rep for that information.

On the Farm Raised Front…

There is a lack of small farm raised Salmon as generations are changing; bad weather in Scotland has postponed a harvest or two, but we should be fine for the rest of the week. The good news is that there are a lot of big fish in the market place!

That’s all for this week’s Market Report. Check back with us next week for the most up-to-date information about the Seafood Industry. Thanks for stopping by!